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Michael DeMeng
~ he calls himself an Assemblage Artist
~ his motto- making the unsacred into something seemingly sacred
His Artist Statement:
..." My work is about transformations. It is about the transformation of the common into the sacred. Discarded materials find new and unexpected uses in my work; they are reassembled and conjoined with unlikely components, a form of rebirth from the ashes into new life and new meaning. These assemblages are metaphors for the evolutions and revolutions of existence: from life to death to rebirth, from new to old to renewed, from construction to destruction to reconstruction. These forms are examinations of the world in perpetual flux, where meaning and function are ever-changing " ...
michaeldemeng.com So my Curiosity was peeked.. and here is the man himself ....
The Workshop
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ entitled
"The Alchemists Book"
Rust , Reliquaries and Illuminated Manuscripts
~ transforming hardback books into Found Object Shrines~ A Few Impressions
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Art Materials ala DeMeng
~ to be invited to look at everyday objects, often discarded and declared "useless" , and then chaperoned by DeMeng to turned these relics into a work of art was a challenging proposition
~ we turned up at "The Junkstore of all Junkstores" where rummaging knee deep in rusty bits, and broken bits, discarded bits and fidddly bits was invited... at the end you just showed your bag to the man at the checkout and he "guestimated the total " ...what a fun experience ..
~ they also had a "civilised" junkstore section , the picture of which you can see below
there the items were sorted by category .. and browsing through vintage italian laces was quickly becoming a favourite of all the ladies. They also had a lovely selection of books and antique maps upstairs , as well as retro furniture, vintage quilts and clothing. All in all a treasure trove full of eyecandy.
~ Laden with large refuse sacks full of "Art Materials ala DeMeng .. we departed, exhausted but full of anticipation as to how these things could possible be turned into "Sacred Art"
Altered Art Junk Shopping in Italy
- this was the orderly part, I was getting overly excited and stuck in rust in the rummage part I forgot to take a photo
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~ Michael started the workshop in a " here is your large italian dome of a book. there is your pile of potential ( translated JUNK) ... get on with it , style
~he showed us his completed prototype , explained some of the assemblage pieces , demoed his one of a kind "HUUGE" Paint Combos and send us on our merry way ... ~ however , he walked alongside the "merry way" of each and every student in the class, always making himself available for questions, showing an interest in the process of each student, explaining techniques again and again if it did not seem clear to an individual person ..going out of his way to accomodate different learning styles ... I was impressed observing him
~ Having taught workshops myself for over 10 years it was a pleasure to see a "professional" at work ... Michael DeMeng has the Art of Teaching down to a "T"
Art Class Review Michael Demeng
Milliande - No longer a Dremel Virgin
~ All kinds of powertools were made available to use on the day, I appreciated the fact that I could observe someone using these tools( I had a dremel for years and never got it out of its box) and then was encouraged to give it a go ...
~Michael patiently demoed all the different drill bits for wood, metal, plastics ...and was always available to hunt for solutions if a student had a particular difficult piece to cut or alter.
~ he had me swinging that dremel ~ sparks flew ...yikes talk about being addicted 
Messy Workstation Alert
~ So what did we all create .... here are a few impressions of the altered art or altered books that people created in this workshop
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